Rookies
by DarlingDeirdre
Summary: Roy Mustang and Riza Hawkeye parted ways a few years ago. In their time apart, they have both picked up students who are training to be in the Amestrian Military. When the two teams are forced together it is only natural that sparks will fly.
1. Roy Mustang

I just want to quickly thank anybody who has spent their time reading this. I think this new idea I have will be an interesting read. I'm trying to make this different for you guys, whoever you are! I am also trying to avoid homework.

And that's going well. hehehe...

Review if you feel like it; I'd appreciate your comments no doubt! But I'm not going to beg for them after every chapter. What matters is I'm having a ball writing this, even if I don't get any readers. Anyway (rant over) - Without any further ado...

**Rookies**

"Keep left. Now...go, go _go_! Hurry. You have to make it through the window or we'll never get in. Follow me up. Jump! This is the only way!" Roy Mustang sat atop a tall windowless skyscraper looking down in disgust, barking commands towards the city floor at just after one o clock in the morning. He kicked off his left boot and let it fall on the head of his trainee far below. There was a loud crash, and the sound of something heavy falling into the heap of garbage below. By the sound of the clatter following it, Roy assumed that his accomplice had knocked over all of the garbage towers in a massive domino effect.

"You'd better clean that up before you head back to base." He thought he heard the kid's voice shout something obscene at him, but he ignored it and made his way back to his hotel room.

Roy spent such a long time in the scalding hot water showering that the cold water began to come through the piping, sending him out of the shower grumbling something about divine retribution. He threw on clothes and jumped lazily onto the bed closest to the tv, flicking it on and beginning to look through the tv guide.

_Knock. Knock._ Two unenthusiastic raps on the hotel door led Roy off the bed to open the door to his partner. After one look at his garbage-coated skin and one whiff of him, Roy slammed the door shut. It was too late, and before Roy could let go of the door (that the two had pulled off its hinges in their quarrel) there were grimy bootprints leading to the locked bathroom.

Roy sighed and gingerly leaned the door against the wall. "You better have brought me my boot back, Junior."

A muffled, "You threw it at me. Get it yourself." reached Roy's preoccupied ears. He wasn't surprised at how the boy bit back at him.

"HEY. I am your superior! You have to respect me, or I'll, or I will send you back to where you came from and they'll give you another person to train under. Somebody much more ruthless than me."

"There's no such thing. Send me back, asshole." Silence fell over the room for a few seconds. The two suddenly broke out in thunderous laughter, shaking the house and waking their neighbors, who shouted at them to be quiet and to quit disturbing the peace. This only made them laugh harder, now unable to stop.

By the time dawn fell over the city the two lay on the floor, having laughed themselves into oblivion last night. Roy sat up off the ground on his unused bed and rubbed his sore back. "Bryan, get up." He kicked the lump of flesh on the floor in front of him, who was still caked with stinking garbage.

Bryan rolled helplessly across the hallway to the bathroom, grumbling lowly. His head struck the hard tiles in the bathroom, which made him yelp in pain. After a lengthy shower he came out of the bathroom to see Roy admiring his face in the mirror, practicing heroic facial expressions with genuine enthusiasm.

"What's the plan for today, Mustang?" Bryan chided. Roy jumped back and assumed a professional stature, even though he knew he'd been caught.

"Observation." Roy yawned deeply, and let himself fall back on his bead. "Unfortunately, you still have a lot to learn."

"Ok." Bryan strapped on his belt and headed for the doorway.

Roy looked up. "We're not leaving yet."

"Come on. We've slept in long enough. I'm the student here; I shouldn't be the one trying to get your ass out of bed." Bryan shut the door behind him and took short, quick, purposeful steps down the hallway. After a long period of self reflection Roy decided it was time for him to lift himself up off the floor and buy breakfast for himself and his rookie.

Bryan was greeted in the hotel lobby by a new man. Roy Mustang, after he had put on a fresh blue uniform and his alternate pair of shiny black boots, looked nothing like he had the night before. There was a glimmer of hope in his crimson eyes, yet there was also a look of experience. He was what most women referred to as "a _real_ man". His looks were the kind that women fawned over, the kind that earned him free stuff and an unlimited supply of single women at his heels in just about every public area he traveled to. It annoyed Bryan to no end. The women would never cease to follow Roy, wherever he went. For Bryan, who enjoyed privacy and mostly hated the general public, this was hell.

Bryan was not jealous. He was dressed for an average day of training in a black dress shirt and jeans, which made the two men a rather odd couple when they sat next to each other - one a military man and one an every day normal guy. He was not as stunningly pretty-boy attractive as Roy Mustang. His skin was a natural light bronze color, and his buzzed hair was colored the darkest brown. His hazel eyes were always focused, never drifting off like Roy's had a tendency to. To tell you the truth, most of the time he attracted women not by his looks but by making them laugh. His sarcastic sense of humor shone through when he let it, but he mostly stuck to what his mission was. For the most part, he was more driven and persistent and even more stubborn than most men (and that's saying a lot).

So the two sat drinking coffee in a small city near Reole reading the newspaper, and thinking simple thoughts about what they were going to order for breakfast and how high the temperature would reach that day. Ordinary things.


	2. Riza Hawkeye

Each shot Riza Hawkeye fired hit its target, bullseye. She leaned backwards, stuck the pistol far in front of her, and shot. Over and over again, she shot the gun. At moving targets, at stationary targets, at the faraway targets meant to be shot at from other booths; she shot them anyway, because there was nobody else shooting. And she didn't miss. Wiping a few beads off her glistening forehead, she stepped away from her practice area calmly. Her gun was out of bullets.

"Throw me a box of ammo." She lifted her hand in the air, which immediately found itself holding onto a cell phone. Riza turned around to look at her trainee, who was sitting rigidly upright on a padded red bench five feet behind her listening to an mp3 player. It was so loud that Riza could hear the drum beat and the blaring electric guitar. "Take that thing off for a minute."

The brunette read her lips and shrugged, taking out her headphones listlessly. Once she had them off she stuffed the headphones and the mp3 player into her small leather purse and looked up at her teacher questioningly. Suzu retied her dark brown hair into a tight bun, like Riza had taught her to do before (so nobody could catch her by her hair). She looked in the mirror, checking that the hair was cleanly tied up, and that her light freckles remained concealed by the waterproof makeup she applied earlier. This was also something Riza instructed her to do. Apparently she was ten times more likely to be recognized by the enemy if she had freckles. Suzu didn't mind, though, as she never really liked how much more childish the sunspots made her face appear.

"I'm not going to call him." Riza shook her head and glared at the girl. "You know I'm not going to call him." She tossed the phone back to the girl and walked over to a bench nearby. She sat down and put the pistol into the holder on her belt.

"Come on! Just do it." The girl chided, and started to slide thin black socks onto her bare feet. The notebook she'd been doodling on fell to the concrete floor with a dull snap. Silence filled the room, as was Riza's daily reaction to her partner's insistence on calling a man she used to know and mentioned once to Suzu when she let her guard down. The only noise that echoed through the room was of Riza getting up and pacing slowly, tying her blond hair into a tight bun just as she had instructed her pupil to do.

"You need to practice. How do you expect to pass the monthly exam?" Riza looked concerned. Even though guns weren't Suzu's forte, she wanted her to be able to use a gun defensively. After training the girl according to military standards of marksmanship for a month until the two decided that the trainee, Suzu, wasn't fit for handling guns. In fact, she was horrible at anything that had to do with pointing a gun and shooting it. To give her a hand gun was a liability.

"Don't worry about it. Even if we do end up having to train with some other team, it wouldn't be the end of the world." Suzu passed the first 7 tests by the skin of her teeth, and was not harrowed at all by the fact that the 8-month-exam was rumored to be three times as rigorous as the last. She was caught off guard when she received a sure blow to the back of the head. It wasn't enough to knock her out, but it would definitely leave a bruise. "Hey!"

"Hey what? During the exam anything can happen. If you allow yourself to be hit like that you'll be out. And that's it. I hope you realize that." Riza lectured. With lightning speed her pistol was out of its holster, in her hands, pointed at the spot where Suzu had been a half a second ago. Riza was momentarily confused but altogether satisfied that her student was able to run from the scene with such speed and quiet deliverance.

The only reason Suzu had moved so expediently was that she was terrified of guns. And terrified of her teacher, once and awhile. She sighed deeply and gazed up at the targets Riza had been shooting from her hiding place behind one of the booths. Every one had a bullet hole punched in exactly where it was supposed to be. She felt a pang of guilt for not being as practiced as she should have been for as far along in her training as she was, and laughed at the sight above her.

Riza had heard her breathing heavily and was offering her a hand to get up, also smiling. Suzu took the help and was immediately dropped back on the ground. They both laughed even harder.

"Really, Suzu. You can't trust anybody." She let her student pull herself off the ground, rubbing the back of her head (which she fell back on when Riza purposefully dropped her, and which was now badly bruised).

"Yeah. I get it." Suzu sneered.

Using what she had learned she shot her leg out at Riza's feet, trying knock her off balance. Riza hopped off the ground to avoid it and grabbed Suzu, with the intent of torcing her into a chokehold. Suzu dodged the attack and shifted her weight onto both of her feet so she could crouch low and move to the other side of Riza, who's back was now turned to her. The timing was right, Riza was off guard, and Suzu knocked her swiftly to the ground.

Riza lay face down on the ground. "I never was too great at hand-to-hand combat." She chuckled and got up, walking with Suzu to the door of the facility. "Are you hungry?" She asked.

"Not really." Suzu shook her head. "How about a run?"

"Sure, might as well."Riza agreed. And the set their eyes to the horizon and began to run.

Lately the two had been running more often. It seemed like they both had their own aggression pent up inside of them, and that Suzu's drawing or Riza's shooting practice would not let off enough steam to let them go through the day without wanting to punch somebody in the face. And this had happened before: when they skipped out on their daily 7 mile run around Central, for example, on a cloudy day in late September.

The two had been out honing their tracking skills in a nearby forest. Because they had taken so long following the hurried paths of deer, night had fallen over the city, and the two had decided prior to that day not to run after dark (to avoid otherwise unnecessary harm inflicted by Riza, that is. It was really more for the mens' sake). They were tired after the session, but still fired up. Hunger overtook them and they decided to go out to eat at a nice sit-down restaurant in the Western area of central. The two could be compared to ticking time bombs, waiting to go off, waiting to be provoked. When the waiter brought out Riza's meat medium-rare (after she asked for it to be well done) he ended up with Riza's gun to his head and a black eye, courtesy of Suzu.

After they were kicked out of the restaurant the two had a fight, and ended up both renting hotel rooms for the night (because Riza dropped the key to their apartment room in the forest earlier that day and refused to ask the perverted manager for help to get into the room).

There was something odd going on in these women, but they did not know what. Something that nagged at them day after day, longing for...something. Something neither of them wanted to talk about, because they'd rather avoid deep discussion and heartfelt words.

The important thing was that the monthly exam was the next day, and Suzu was completely unprepared.


	3. Tardy

"This is where we split." Riza gave a small nod towards Suzu, who was already backing towards the opposite end of the indoor gymnasium. The monthly exams were upon them. They woke up at the crack of dawn for a run to get their spirits up and, for Suzu, to release anxiety that would alter her performance during the day. Just like any other procrastinator, Suzu had experienced a feeling of dread and unrest all that morning.

"I'll see you after it's done." She said in a businesslike tone of voice. She saluted Riza, and turned around sharply. She was so nervous that she did not watch where she was going and walked into another 8 month student, a man around her age, who eyed her with frustration and kept walking. She apologized, but muttered under her breath, "Jerk."

Riza saw this and hoped it wasn't any indication of how her trainee would perform. At that point in time she did not want to deal with another two group of two people. The way she saw it Suzu was enough of a handful. A warning bell tolled the last half an hour that the entrants had to arrive in their respective areas. Riza looked over the heads of the other teachers, but did not see the man who she knew should also have been in her line.

She shook her head and cracked a smile. He hadn't changed one bit.

* * *

The alarm clock was still sounding when the two men finally woke up. Roy Mustang groggily stared at the beeping machine until at last he realized why he set the alarm in the first place. He jumped off his mattress like it was a bed of hot coals and seized Bryan by the shoulders. He shook him furiously.

"Wake up, wake up!" He shouted in Bryan's ears.

"What the _hell_ are you screaming about?!" Bryan was still laying down on his bed, refusing to move.

"The test. Your 8-month test is today! If you do not get up you will be one sorry man tomorrow. I promise you that." Roy let go of him and ran frantically to the closet. He pulled off his shirt and had his uniform on in seconds.

"Wow. You change fast." Bryan blinked, still delirious from waking up so suddenly. His mouth formed a sly grin, "Wonder why that is...you womanizer. Womanizer, woman-womanizer, you're a-"

His serenade was cut off by Roy, who pulled him out of bed and threw him at the wall in blind anger. "I am not like that!" He looked at his student, who was now knocked out, and cursed. Loudly. "Now how am I going to get you to the test?!" Because the lights were off in the room, he grabbed a random shirt and pants from the closet, shoved them into a duffel bag, picked up his trainee, and ran out the door. He had to make it from Reole to Central. Fast. There was only a half an hour before the test would begin, and he would be locked out if he arrived late (which would result in immediate failure of the exam). He rushed out into the city.

Luckily, there was a train rushing past. It was going extremely fast, which was good (if he could find a way onto it). He jumped at one of the handles, and caught it with his free hand. In his struggle to lift himself into the car he nearly dropped Bryan's lifeless body onto the ground.

He shoved himself, the duffel bag, and Bryan into the car and closed the sliding glass door. There were several people staring dumbly at the arrivals, like Roy was a mass murderer or a giant blue chicken. After Roy sat down next to one of the spectators and neglected to offer an explanation the car cleared out. Roy propped Bryan up in one of the seats across from him after dressing him in the clothes he brought.

He folded his arms behind his head and let out a deep breath. His eyes closed in a concentrated, serious relaxation. "Perfect. This is just perfect."

* * *

By the time Bryan came around the two had arrived in Central. With 5 minutes left on the clock until the exam's start, Roy figured they had made it. He ordered Bryan to follow him up the main street to the building they had been avoiding for the past month. They rushed in just as the final announcement was made, Bryan stumbling drunkenly to the side of the gymnasium with the other students. Roy stood at the other side, attempting to make it look like he had been late on purpose. Because he was a relatively famous guy everybody around him bought into it and excused it as just another one of Roy Mustang's crazy entrances. Everybody except for Riza Hawkeye, that is. She was laughing at him, not with him.

There were around 20 pairs in the gym. The military at first organized 33, but there were 10 or so dropouts since then. Also, if a team managed to fail two times consecutively they were thrown out of the system, and the person who was training the failure generally became a laughingstock among his or her peers. Hence the reason why the test got Roy so worked up.

The exam officially began. A man over the intercom began to explain the basic rules for the students and the teachers to abide by. The announcer was not excited. His monotone voiced droned on and on and on, to the point where students were talking openly with each other and teachers, who were given cushioned chairs, were nodding off.

In the meantime, Bryan was pissed. He could hear the giggling of female students all around him, chastising the way he was dressed. One girl in particular found it to be particularly hilarious. She had dark brown hair, pulled into a bun. At that moment, to Bryan, she was the devil.

"What are you laughing at?" He glared daggers at her. Even though his look was driving most of the people away from him because it was so hateful, all she did was quit laughing.

"You, obviously. Who dressed you, your mom?" She chortled. Suzu watched him writhe uncomfortably against the wall, doing the best he could to make the holey pink sweater (which had 'Roy' carefully stitched onto the stomach) and the blue military pants look close to normal. It wasn't working.

"Actually it was my teacher." He kept glaring at her, but managed an outraged glance at the other end of the room where she presumed his trainer was. She looked away because his stare was beginning to burn a hole into her forehead.

"That sucks." She mumbled calmly, ignoring his spiteful, burning glare. The moderators were beginning to ready the furniture needed for the intense physical testing session that was the main section examination. There was a quiz directly after the physical portion, but it would always be the easiest part of the day to pass. By then the day had lost all of the hysterical worrying that came with the first 4 or 5 tests. It was routine for the students. The tension level was low for the students (except for Bryan, of course).

Team Roy Mustang successfully made it to the location of the test on time, even though Bryan could hardly move without being called a momma's boy. Riza hoped her more responsible preparation for the event would lead Suzu to perform better than she had ever been before. In all, the students had much less faith in themselves than their teachers did.


	4. Condemned

Despite the rumor circulating around that the 8-month-exam would be monumentally more difficult than the last, the pass rate was abnormally high. For the most part the physical examination was the same, with more restricting time limits on the courses that required agility. Students breezed through the day, finally feeling like they were comfortable with being tested on their abilities.

Riza Hawkeye sat watching Suzu along with her fellow trainees (aka future competition) with her right leg crossed neatly over her left and her small hands folded delicately on her lap. She observed the students as they leaped over sawhorses, climbed the rope in the center of the gym and went into practiced combat with a skilled military veteran. She had always known that if Suzu had enough passion for the job, it would shine through and she would be at the top of her class in no time. Today that wasn't the case. She was doing terrible.

Suzu had resigned herself to fail before the test even started. However, this did not make her any less embarrassed about it. Riza detected shame in her eyes as she flunked her way through the course. Each time she failed her mental condition worsened, making her vulnerable and even a little bit shy. There were a few students watching, chuckling to themselves and pointing her out to friends. Riza controlled her urge to pull out her pistol and fire a warning shot, knowing that she would probably embarrass Suzu more by doing it. It was painful to watch.

Bryan was at the other end of the spectrum when it came to confidence, and also when it came to aptitude. He whizzed over, under and straight through the obstacles with a look of focused intensity. He gave the impression of practiced ease and strength. Despite his ridiculous outfit he looked reasonably comfortable! Girls flocked around him like pigeons, cooing and giggling and chirping about when he finished an event, but he shoved past them without a backwards glance.

Riza looked across the gym to see her former colleague Roy Mustang, Bryan's current instructor. Sleeping. She stifled an immediate reflex telling her to walk over and hit him upside the head to wake him up. It made her laugh to see other people sitting next to him and trying to wake him up, snapping their fingers and shouting into his ears. She remembered how he had slept like a rock. And then her mind drifted off visions of him sleeping, into memories of looking into his eyes as he woke up next to her...

She shook her head violently, planted both feet on the floor and said, "No. Cut it out Hawkeye. He is a buffoon. He is a buffoon...He is a buffoon..." She repeated this to herself until people started noticing her mumbling to herself, and she heard one of them label her as schizophrenic. She recrossed her legs and acted as if nothing had happened, even though she was having trouble keeping her mind off the subject of a certain snoozing alchemist.

And this is how the day passed. Quickly and somewhat quietly, and mostly relaxed.

There were four teams that had not passed the test, Suzu being one of them. They called out the names of the people who made it through, and the four who didn't were summoned to follow a man into a small adjoining room. The rule was that whichever team lost had to train for the next month with another team, one who had passed. So when Suzu came out she would have her partner team arranged.

This was a voluntary measure for the passing team, as the judges had a list of teams to pair them up with made already, but it made the volunteers look more responsible and mature to the eyes of the judges – who would pick only four individuals in the entire pool of the twenty 20-or-so aged students to pass the final exam, making them soldiers. The process didn't used to be so tough, but lately the military had been losing trust in its applicants. They wanted to make sure the student accepted was dedicated enough.

The two groups involved would be required to sign a waver saying that if, for example, team Hawkeye decided to train without their partner team, they would be kicked out of the program. The passing team did not have to train with the team who failed at all times. It was a serious measure, but it forced the teams to follow the rules.

Suzu emerged from the room, dejected. She gripped a yellow card in her hands loosely. She met Riza with a defeated look.

"Here." She stuck the card out for Riza to take. The card read, 'Lieutenant Mardus'. She had heard of this guy before as being chauvinistic, but decided not to pass judgment before she actually met him face to face. 'Optimism is key.' She told herself.

The cheery silver haired old man who had given Suzu her card was walking toward them with another team in tow that had to be Mardus. A portly middle-aged man with a russet colored mullet atop his head and a blond young man who looked just like a real live muppet followed on the old man's heels.

The odd pair proceeded to shake hands with Riza and Suzu. The old man said something like, "Good show. Have fun, kids!" as he walked away, but Suzu couldn't concentrate on anything other than the boy, with the fitting name of 'Bert', and his bumpy red inflammation of acne strewn across the whole of his face. He was awkwardly (although confidently) introducing himself, scratching at a patch of welts under his rounded chin.

He missed Suzu's outstretched hand and accidentally grabbed her left boob and held his grasp for a few seconds, which was apparently extra hilarious to the two men but sent Suzu into a state of shock. She stood stock still with a twisted, disturbed look on her face while the laughter died down (a good five minutes later, while Riza tried to keep Suzu from tipping over). Eventually the conversation shifted, and Bert tried to entertain Suzu with dead baby jokes (obviously not knowing or caring that Suzu was extremely sensitive) and Lt. Mardus was bellowing drunkenly at an unhappy Riza Hawkeye. He had taken the liberty of calling her by her first name, which was only ever, ever, _ever _used by Suzu.

After the two groups had made a decision to meet to resume training the next day they turned from each other to leave. After they had made it a good distance away Suzu put her face in her hands.

"I was trying so hard not to gag. I'm really not a judgmental person...I just...I don't know." Suzu sighed.

"It's alright. Those men were disgusting. Mardus was trying his best to figure out if I was single that entire time." Riza saw the ghost of a smile grace Suzu's face for a moment and die away quickly. Suzu was already exasperated from failing, and now she felt like an utter disappointment. She muttered something about divine punishment, and Riza found herself dreading the next encounter with Lt. Mardus.

Riza stopped dead. She knew there was only one way out of this arrangement. She wasn't going to be completely happy about having to interact with him, but she also knew there was only one man who could change management's mind about the team she was paired with. Without another throught she directed herself towards Roy Mustang.

Suzu kept walking to the door, oblivious as usual. She only noticed Riza's absence when she reached the doorway, alone. She spun around and looked behind her. The gym was mostly empty because most of the teams had filed out while team Hawkeye and team Mardus were talking. There were only three or four other groups, talking in hushed tones so their conversations wouldn't echo and be heard throughout the gymnasium. Most of the white lights flicked off, one by one, so that there was only dim lighting left to illuminate the room, hinting at the stragglers to leave.

Riza was roughly poking a man who was snoring loudly, stretched over a bench in under a basketball hoop on the opposite end of the room. Suzu laughed and said to herself, "_That_ is who's going to save us, huh? Fat chance."

"Actually, he's a pretty cool guy." Said a slightly low, mostly resentful, gravelly voice that came from behind her. He stepped up beside her to look at the two and she realized it was the guy she had talked to earlier that day. He had put his mentor's blue military coat over his ridiculous sweater by then.

She cursed inwardly and blushed lightly, regretting laughing at him after seeing his near-perfect performance that day. "Oh. I suppose I wouldn't know." She looked down.

"No. You wouldn't." He spat venomously, and started walking towards Riza and Roy. She realized, regrettably, that she should probably follow them too. And so she did – keeping a large distance between herself and the ugly-sweater-boy. She feared that what was to happen next was going to top off what had been a very socially exhausting day, but figured it couldn't be worse than her meeting with team Mardus (or at least she hoped so).

She hummed the funeral march as she walked slowly to the bench under the basketball hoop, to her teacher.


	5. Meeting

"Wake up, Mustang. I need to ask you a question. It's _important_." Riza, who had nearly given up after a few minutes of halfhearted smacks to Roy's face, was thoroughly ticked off. Her voice was slowly raising to a roar. She wasn't in the mood to yell at him (as yelling was something she generally tried to avoid), but she was sick and tired of his inconvenient tendency to sleep like a rock.

"How can somebody sleep through an entire day?" She tapped her foot impatiently on the ground. The idea of wasting away in dreamland for a whole day was not a concept she understood.

Bryan approached the two. He saw that she was having trouble getting him up, so he promptly took his water bottle and squirted ice cold water into his face, which was hanging near the ground off of the bench. Riza watched him with an amused face as he freaked out, jumping up and shouting, "I didn't do it!" She nodded to Bryan, saying a silent 'thank you'.

When Roy finally got his wits together he rubbed the back of his neck, now sore because he gave himself a nasty whiplash by leaping off the bench. He also noticed Riza standing a few feet from him, watching his every move. He assumed a dutiful, manly pose, standing straight up with his held held high, his shoulders back and his hands folded behind him, acting as if the outburst never happened.

"You're such a spazz." Bryan remarked quietly, laughing at him, as he threw the jacket he was covering himself with to Roy, who caught it and had it buttoned up and on in a fraction of a second. Suzu, who had finally arrived and was ready to ignore Bryan at all costs (she had grown to be afraid of him and embarrassed in front of him all at once), greeted them. When she noticed that Bryan was shirtless her face went red and she gasped loudly. Her face twisted painfully as she avoided eye contact and turned slowly to leave. After a few seconds of self meditation she lifted one foot off the ground and started making her way to the door of the gym.

The last two or three lights in the gym flicked off. A shriek was heard, followed by the sound of feet hitting against the floor, as Suzu made a mad rush to the door and out of the pitch black darkness. Riza sighed, making a mental note to toughen up her student so she would be able to handle the dark. It was crucial to hide in the darkness at times in the profession she hoped to go into (military work, that is).

"So, what's up Hawkeye?" Bryan noticed that Roy seemed uncomfortable when he said this – his voice wavering some – which was odd to see because he knew him to be unusually confident around most women. Bryan passed it off as being embarrassment from his recent episode.

"I need out of my partnership with Lieutenant Mardus." The two had silently agreed to start walking to the door, Bryan leaving them through the back door (hoping he could amplify the awkwardness of the situation for his own amusement).

"_You_ of all people need my help. Hm. Why?" He raised a questioning eyebrow and couldn't help but smile, which went unseen by Riza.

"Have you met the man?!" Riza said darkly.

"Yeah. He's not so bad. A little bit...perverted. But all in all, he's a good man." He commented.

They didn't speak another word until they made it to the doorway, both looking out at the city streets, unremarkable during the day, made magic by the bronze-orange glow of the street lights during nighttime.

Riza broke the silence."I want you to get my team another partner. I really can't handle another day with him." She looked him square in the eye. He met her intense gaze with a more humored one.

"I think I could manage that."

Riza saluted him slowly, as if it was something foreign to her. Suzu, who was listening to the conversation from a park bench a few hundred feet away, pumped her fist in the air and cried, "Victory!" Roy glanced at her.

"Has she really been here this whole time?" Riza nodded and Roy fixed his eyes to the gravel accumulating on the curb of the street, thinking.

"Thank you sir." Riza said as she turned to leave. She stopped and turned her head to the side. "It's one less thing for me to worry about." She started walking again, motioning Suzu to follow her. Suzu raised a hand to wave goodbye to Roy. He waved back, and she spun around and trotted to catch up with Riza. Bryan had walked in the opposite direction when he left the building and was now probably at the hotel where he and Roy were staying, Roy presumed.

He kicked a rock into the street in frustration with himself. He was lost in his thoughts. 'What happened to you, Mustang? Coward...' A car came whose wheels hit the rock he kicked just perfectly so that it flung up and into Roy's right eye. He swore loudly and covered it, falling to his knees and pounding the hand that wasn't holding his face on the ground.

"That's going to hurt in the morning." Bryan chided from behind him.

"Yeah. Yeah, it will." He removed his hand from his face and looked at Bryan, who made a pained expression.

"Aw, man. That sucks."

"Is it that bad? _Really_?" Roy pleaded. His day had been on a fast track downhill since he woke up.

"...Yeah."

"Well it's not as bad as yours." Roy stood up and poked Bryan in the center of his forehead.

He winced and drew back from Roy, assuming a defensive stature. "Ow. What?!"

Roy shook his head knowingly. "Did you think that you'd be able to hit the wall with that much force without a little bruising?"

"You're making it sound like this was my fault. I was thrown – you would know. You and your anger problems..." He pointed his finger at Roy and squinted his eyes in careful accusation.  
"Me and _my _anger problems?! Are you kidding me Bryan? What about the time you stabbed me with that salad fork? Or the time you tried to clobber me with a part of the wooden bed frame you ripped off in one of your blinding rages (the part of bed frame that _I _payed for)?"

"Tried. Pah! I got you that time. Wasn't as bad as when you tried to suffocate me with the kitchen rag that you used to bleach the windows..."

And it went on, and on, and on. And on. They never made it back to their room that night. Once dawn lit up the silver streets of Central Bryan awoke to find himself alone on the curb with an aching pain in his back from sleeping on concrete.

He walked back to the apartment, trying to cover up the ugly pink sweater he was still wearing from the day before (he had put it back on to travel outdoors, not wanting to walk around Central without a shirt on). Once he reached their room he found a note taped onto the door that told him to go to a local cafe to meet Roy. He changed clothes quickly and walked back to where he was sitting before to the closest eatery, a little place called Mona's Diner.

"When I woke up this morning I was in your range of sight. I know you saw me. Why did you make me go all of the way back to the room?" Bryan plopped down opposite of Roy.

"I wanted you to change your clothes. And I had no paper." Roy mused as he twirled his fork through the scrambled eggs on his plate.

After a long pause Bryan thoughtfully looked up from the glass cup of water he'd been staring at for the past ten minutes. "I get so tired of this inconsistent life style."

Roy chuckled darkly and laid his fork gently down on the folded napkin beside his plate. "You're telling me."

His head snapped up from his plate of breakfast and he stared at Bryan crazily. "I have an idea."


End file.
